The Killer Trail
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3.4 • 10 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
When Vancouver psychiatric social worker Chris Ryder spots an abandoned cell phone during his afternoon jog, the innocent discovery drags him into the psychotic games of Ray Owens, a former patient at the centre of a high-profile kidnapping and murder case.
As the violence increases, Owens’ intricate web of lies threatens to ensnare the lives of Ryder’s family and friends, including his old flame Doctor Stephanie Rowe and RCMP Sergeant Brandon Ryan. Now if Ryder is to survive, he must examine the darkness in his own soul as he walks the killer trail.
Shortlisted for the 2013 Debut Dagger Award by the Crime Writers Association, D.B. Carew’s first novel is a gripping thriller that approaches crime with a clinical precision.
Praise for The Killer Trail
"[a] promising debut thriller..."
~ Sarah Weinman, National Post
"D.B. Carew, a first-time novelist, is a natural whiz at generating tension that puts Ryder — and the reader — through an emotional wringer."
~ Jack Batten, Toronto Star
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When professional killer Ray Owens loses his cell phone, which contains incriminating information, and Vancouver psychiatric worker Chris Ryder finds it, the solution seems straightforward: ambush and kill Ryder. Ryder soon discovers he is the target of a ruthless killer with whom he shares a longer history than he first realized, and, worse, Owens's powerful employer is determined to get his hands on the phone before the police do. With not just his own life but also those of his loved ones on the line, Ryder will have to confront his family's darkest secrets to survive. Carew demonstrates a broad awareness of crime fiction conventions in this, his debut novel, but unfortunately fails to move beyond clich . Inexplicably, the author combines melodrama with self-sabotaging villains, resulting in a novel in which the antagonists' essential incompetence leaves them impotent as credible threats. The surprising revelations fail to surprise, the various ploys to engage the reader's sympathies are heavy-handed, and the plot proves a sequence of anticlimaxes.
